About Me

Remember that this week. You have never lived the seven days in front of you, and you will never live them again. Life is like a coin. Spend it any way you want to, but you can spend it only once. Taken from Day by Day by Charles R. Swindoll

I am a Leeds lass now living in Brum.
In this blog I will talk about my beliefs (Christian) and my walk with God; and about the other loves in my life hubby, reading, knitting & stitching & all things craft, wine & cooking as long as it’s Gluten-Free as I’m a Coeliac.

Leeds lass living in Brum. Proverbs 31 v 13 "She shops around for the best yarns and cottons, and enjoys knitting and sewing"

Monthly Archives: February 2015

Khalida Brohi (TED Talk: How I work to protect women from honor killings) grew up traveling between two very different parts of Pakistan: the bustling city of Karachi, where her parents moved so that she and her sisters could go to school, and a small village in Balochistan, where her family has its roots. Brohi got a modern education, and also developed a deep reverence for her tribal traditions. Those two threads often tangled — especially when it came to the treatment of women.

As a teenager, Brohi watched as, one by one, her childhood friends entered arranged marriages, sometimes against their will. When she was 16, she received word that a close friend had been murdered by her family in an “honor killing.” She set her mind on starting a movement to stop these practices. But as it gained momentum, it also spurred a backlash.

It spoke to me an awful lot as I can sympathise with the author. I used to be that reader who ate books and it was the norm for me to regularly read a book in 24 hours. However a few years ago when my husband’s health took a bit of a turn I lost my reading mojo.

My head space also became not so good. I spent much time deep in thought and worry. If I tried to take my mind off things by reading I found that I couldn’t concentrate. I would spend ages re – reading the same line over and over again, with nothing being absorbed.

It didn’t matter what I tried to read.
Even reading my Bible became difficult. My favourite authors also couldn’t break through this fog that I was going through. Whatever was suggested to read I struggled to finish a book.

Although that was a strange time and it’s going back awhile, my appetite for reading has changed. No longer am I ravenous for a book. A book has to be really gripping to hold my attention, to keep me entertained and enthralled to the end. It’s a rare thing for me to read a book within a couple of days. If I do, you know it must be a good one.

I know that there’s many health benefits associated with reading and it is supposed to be a way of elevating depression. My advice through the dark days is keep trying, and if you can’t , don’t beat yourself up over it. Find something else that will assist in lifting you up. For me knitting became a lifeline.

The other thing I recommend is don’t be afraid to seek out help and speak about how you feel. I know the road is hard and long. There will be good days and bad days. Eventually things will get better – just keep believing this and show yourself some love.
Blessings x

This week’s Friday FO is a mini shawl that I made for a friends daughter. This is a free pattern on ravelry called the Little House Shawl created by Joanna Johnson who says the design was inspired by the books of Laura Ingalls Walder in Little House on the Praire.

The shawl itself comes in sizes child and adult so you could make a matching mother-daughter set if you wished. The matchy-matchy look is very on trend this season.

Its a good pattern to try as a first shawl. I really enjoyed making it and here’s the finished object…

I used lots of leftover yarn to do the feather and fan edging. You can have great fun playing around with the colours but it would work in a solid yarn just as well.

The shawl forms a half-crescent shape which wraps neatly over the shoulders. What a pretty gift to…

Over the Christmas holidays, I started knitting again. YAY! It had been a while, probably several months, since I’d done any crafting at all. It helped that I had the flu and THEN a cold during January, so I was home from work A LOT.

I’ve finished two afghans since Christmas! One I started just after Christmas and finished near the end of January, while the other one is a crocheted work that I all-but-finished last spring and then put down because the finishing part is pretty tedious. They both look really nice, I think!

Here are pics:

Rambling Rows afghan

Babette Blanket

If you’d like to see more, check out my page on Ravelry.com at http://www.ravelry.com/projects/tfoz. For a funny story, look at the Knot Shoes to see my mistake when I made a pair that fit my giant cat’s feet, rather than itty-bitty baby feet.

I did try making the star but found the gold tinsel thread hard to knit with and when I tried to make a pom pom with it…….Well it didn’t work and I had tiny bits of gold thread all over the lounge. This amused hubby no end!

Since then as part of my year of making I decided to brighten up an old coat by making some trimmings using the glowworm yarn. I had pink and orange but when I put up the finish pieces up to the coat I realised that the pink looked better.

Here is the finished product:

I was a bit unsure what to make next. I was trying not to cast on another project but focus on the wips. Two of the wips are shawls – a bit complicated to take to Knit Night. The other is a jumper and currently I’m not sure what I’ve done with the needles that I need for the ribbing. Hmm going to have to hunt for those.

The decision has been taken out of my hands. This year is becoming the year of the baby. A friend’s daughter gave birth today to a baby girl. 🙂 Also four of my friends are pregnant. I’ve been asked to make something a little special for one of them. Since the pins will be out I might as well make a few bits for the other babies – and the best bit booties are a good project to take along to Knit Night as they are small and not complicated. Win 🙂